Avalara vs. Taxify, by Sovos

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Avalara
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Avalara AvaTax connects to the software that businesses already have and delivers sales tax decisions based on precise geo-location in more than 12,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.N/A
Taxify, by Sovos
Score 1.0 out of 10
N/A
Sovos Compliance now offers Taxify, a tax management, processing, and compliance application.N/A
Pricing
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Features
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Product A and Product B
Avalara
7.4
Ratings
6% below category average
Taxify, by Sovos
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
Sales and Use Taxes9.00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes7.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
VAT / GST Taxes5.90 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Energy and Fuel Taxes7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Product A and Product B
Avalara
8.5
Ratings
8% above category average
Taxify, by Sovos
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
Geolocation for Tax Assessment9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
3rd-Party Software Integrations7.70 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Tax Data Reporting8.70 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Compliance Administration Management9.20 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Tax Exemption Processing8.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Tax Document Management8.10 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Complex Tax Scenario Management8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Small Businesses
TaxJar
TaxJar
Score 8.6 out of 10
TaxJar
TaxJar
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
LOVAT
LOVAT
Score 10.0 out of 10
LOVAT
LOVAT
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
ADP SmartCompliance
ADP SmartCompliance
Score 8.6 out of 10
ADP SmartCompliance
ADP SmartCompliance
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
3.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AvalaraTaxify, by Sovos
Likelihood to Recommend
As a non-profit that relies on volunteers, having a system that is easy to use and cost effective is crucial. Alavara fit both of those needs for us. Also, since this is a task that is completed only once a year, it needs to be simple to use, which Alavara is. And lastly, since the IRS rules are often complicated and change regularly, it is helpful to have a vendor that stays current with the changes and incorporates them into the process which Alavara does.
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I would not recommend this software/solution. For the price they quote, I would look into other solutions as their software never fully supported our business and the filings were incorrect for years without resolution from customer serv. Their Resale Cert platform also lacked credibility- I suggest, look into other solutions to better support your filings.
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Pros
  • Sales tax rates at a "roof top" level
  • Has extensive research and documentation on telecommunications industry
  • Research is always up to date
  • The ability to ask questions and get clarification on specific situations with no limit as to how you ask a question and often get the answer the same day
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  • veratax download
  • ticket system is average
  • average communication from rep via email
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Cons
  • I find it virtually impossible to access people when you have issues with anything
  • In my experience, everything runs through account managers and they are non-responsive and unavailable most of the time.
  • In my experience, 99% of all communication with anybody at Avalara has to be done via some ridiculous form or via email. Human contact is extremely difficult to resolve an issue that sometimes requires human to human contact.
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  • in my opinion, customer service could improve
  • in my opinion, implementation could be better to ensure accurate reporting
  • in my opinion, better rep support and pricing for smaller term contracts
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Likelihood to Renew
I have not been able to find a company that does it better than Avalara. I still have lots of problems, but we are working through them. Based on other demos i have seen and talking with peers in other companies, this is the best.
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Usability
The UI is simple and straightforward. The site is organized in a manner that is easy to understand for beginners and experts alike. There's also tons of resoruces on Avalara University at your disposal to better understand how Avalara can work best for your business needs. I would recommend Avalara to anyone wanting to investment in the betterment of their business's sales tax function
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
I have been using Avalara for years and do not remember ever having an outage during working hours. The service is accurate and dependable.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
We do have trouble tying Avalara's reporting back to our POS, but we just got a new POS system and there are bugs we are still trying to work out within the POS system. I do not believe this is an Avalara issue
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Avalara is not consistent in giving us information timely. For instance, right now, we have a help desk ticket with them that's been open since October. They are still trying to figure it out and we haven't gotten any feedback on where they are at or what is going on. That seems to me a very excessive amount of time to be working on a problem. Was it forgotten? Is there something bigger going on? Do they need something from us? An update would be helpful.
Also, many times when we call with an issue or concern (wrong tax rate for instance) we generally feel like the help desk assumes it's of our doing instead of theirs and doesn't truely listen when we explain the problem because we end up repeating it over and over as well as sending examples. We expect more respect on our end.
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No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
I wasn't here when they first started with Avalara.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
The documentation online we informative and helpful. The videos from the Avalara institute and the help tab if we have any questions and the search too were helpful. We like the ease of using the click here for more information tool about nexus and the information for the ECM Pro training were helpful. Whenever we have a question we normally get an email along with the tool as to where to find our answer. We also like that it shows information about nexus status of the states we maybe approaching and we can look more into it.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
The implementation team from Avalara was very knowledgable and did a good job of passing along information so that we could maintain the system and be able to make future changes ourselves. We had asked for some custom tax setup and they worked with us to get additional taxes set up that they didn't previously have. They worked with us to pull our documentation on tax rules and make sure those were included. I had hoped more scenarios would be there out of the box to cut down on the configuration time.
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Alternatives Considered
TaxJar is integrated with Kaseya autotask, and this integration is very inefficient and was not easy to set up. Neither TaxJar nor Kaseya support was helpful at all, "rude" is the only word to describe that, whereas Avalara has always tried to be helpful and has been very friendly to work with. TaxJar has no similar capability to retain their tax-calculated transactions and file the returns; TaxJar would calculate the taxes in Kaseya autotask and you would still have to manually import the data into TaxJar if you wanted to subscribe and have them file your returns. Needless to say that was a non-starter.
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We picked Taxify, by Sovos based on original contract price- would not recommend this as well as (with all the issues we have been experiencing) would rather spend the money and time on Avalara. When we asked for a 1 yr contract to limp along for the year, the price was quoted for about $70K which was triple our original agreement.
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Scalability
There is no change that has to happen as your company grows, Avalara continues to do it's job for any size company
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • We went from two staff members down to one staff member dedicated to monitoring and reconciling sales tax with the G/L.
  • It takes the one staff member less time to monitor sales tax than having to go through and calculate and file in each state.
  • Avalara gives us confidence that the returns are filed accurately and timely every month.
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  • manual work to get accurate info- increase in manpower & time for accurate submissions
  • increase in time w. rep to fix or address issues without resolution
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ScreenShots

Avalara Screenshots

Screenshot of the Avalara portal homepageScreenshot of returns, appearing in the Avalara portalScreenshot of transactionsScreenshot of reportsScreenshot of jurisdiction details